Movie of the Day: January 31, 2003

IMDb Movie of the Day
These days, you would kill to get a cast for a sea-swept action-drama that included Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Liam Neeson. Back in 1984, however, it was a little easier for director Roger Donaldson, seeing as Gibson was still an Aussie import, Hopkins was bouncing around various television projects, and no one had ever heard of those other two strapping Irish lads. Donaldson's The Bounty was a strikingly solid adaptation of the tale of rebellious Fletcher Christian, stalwart Captain Bligh and the breadfruit and Tahitian beauty that inspired mutiny on the HMS Bounty. Unlike the rollicking 1935 classic that starred a dashing Clark Gable as Christian and an imperious Charles Laughton as the evil Bligh (or the flawed 1962 version with Marlon Brando), this is a revisionist tale that casts the Bounty captain in a more compassionate light, and shows Christian to be a fallible leader, not a swashbuckling hero. Hopkins' Bligh is a usually fair and just captain with a job to get done, who finds himself unprepared for the tropical lust that takes over his crew. Resorting to strict disciplinary measures, he finds himself up against Gibson's Christian, a man torn between his duty to his captain and the newfound love he has for the South Seas (and gorgeous Tahitian native Tevaite Vernette), and after Bligh reveals his plans for a treacherous voyage home, all hell breaks loose. Donaldson's strength here is keeping the audience sympathetic to both Hopkins and Gibson, making out neither to be a monster but rather men driven by their differing moral compasses; Day-Lewis and Neeson are captivating to watch as two of the seamen who succumb to the heat that stokes the roiling tensions of the crew. Donaldson, who also directed this weekend's new release The Recruit, further distinguished The Bounty from its predecessors with its attention to historical detail and sumptuous location photography, which seduces audiences as well as the crewmen of the ill-fated ship. (more)

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